Network communication systems such as the Internet offer a powerful data unification platform. Data unification and collaborative analysis of data may be facilitated by selectively configuring the platform available to users during online sessions on the worldwide web (“web”). As the number of types and sources of data has grown greatly, the complexity and difficulty in the organization and analysis of data between relevant participants on the internet has also grown.
Data is generated and collected by a plurality of segregated or “siloed” groups. Siloed groups tend to not share information or share incomplete information. Even when siloed groups do share information, it is often not shared in an optimal or compatible format, and/or not analyzed in a collaborative manner.
In the commerce context, for example, there exists a paradigm in the marketing/advertisement industry of viewing advertisement channels as separate and distinct. As an illustration, a marketing group may segment a promotional campaign by advertisement channels, such as online advertisements, newspaper advertisements, radio advertisements, etc. As another example, a corporation may segment its departments between sales, advertising marketing, distribution, production and research. These siloed groups, if not managed correctly, result in misallocation of scarce resources (as discussed in the '019 application), ineffective or inefficient use of data collection, and suboptimal or inefficient data analysis. Stated differently, this silo paradigm leads to “losing the forest for the trees” since groups fail to realize the efficiency and effectiveness obtained from consolidation of data and collaboration of analysis across multiple groups and channels. Prior attempts to remedy these deficiencies, before the present invention, have been unsatisfactory.